A 23-year-old teacher from North Carolina was arrested on Sunday for interrupting the Easter Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with an animal rights protest, police said.
Jacob Martin was charged with disrupting a religious service for barging into the cathedral with a bullhorn at about 12:10 p.m.
Martin was part of a group with Collectively Free, an organization that calls itself an activist community.
“Easter is a time for love,” they chanted. “No more shedding animal blood.”
The protest was caught on video, showing a man using a bullhorn in the middle of the aisle. Several people then escort the man out.
Martin, according to the group, is a Christian schoolteacher.
“I was raised Christian,” Martin said in a statement through Collectively Free. “And I wouldn’t be interrupting everyone’s time of worship today if I didn’t think it was absolutely necessary.”
Attorney information for Martin was not immediately available.
